In June 2012, every single computer at the Royal Bank of Scotland just suddenly stopped working: ATMs were frozen, accounts disabled -- basically everything that makes it a bank instead of a prison for money was broken.
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"I don't think a rock hammer is going to work on this ..."
No, this isn't a plot synopsis for Die Hard 6: Die Hardest (though do message us if you're interested in reading the treatment, Hollywood). Nor was it a robbery, or a terrorist attack, or anything even remotely sexy like that. The bank's processing software needed a routine update. RBS passed the supposedly simple job off to an inexperienced tech, and discovered that sometimes you get what you pay for. After making a regular, non-fatal error, the tech backed out of the update to try again. Then he made the truly fatal error of erasing everything. The entire scheduling queue for the RBS system was wiped clean, meaning that as far as the bank was concerned, money didn't exist anymore. Anyone not already prepared for Bartertown was in for a nasty surprise.
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